Friend
by sweetsnow73
Summary: Ukraine can't stay beind the iron curtian anymore and she sets out, and she finds a friend.


While the majority of the world would rather pretend that the Red Army just popped into existence one day after the Second Great War just to bother the western powers, it had in fact been growing for some time during the war.

Ukraine didn't think much of it at first. She watched and listened as her brother went through yet another great upheaval. Seemed his people would always be an unruly lot, but that ran through all the Slavic countries. A general unrest that could be contained a little through a physical life of survival. She stayed close by in the begging, concerned for her little brother. A motherly instinct that even today refuses to die.

But it soon became obvious that things where very wrong. It started with the ideas of sharing crops, then maximum production. Yields needed to be bigger and with her land it seemed as if the most of this was laid on her shoulders, to help him and her family and their people.

And while things started to seem bleaker and bleaker, her brother had more and more excuses and reassurances, but they slowly got to feel empty like the stomachs of her people. They began to run away, she felt their steps and then they vanished from her awareness. It was her own stubbornness that she stayed.

It must have been when the crops where done and a chill was settling in on the land that she realized she needed out.

There was no more joy in her eyes, she would glance out the windows and feel jealous of the birds that traveled freely. Looking around her brother's house, it suddenly seemed to be a cage and she needed out.

She wasn't sure how much of a head start she would get before someone noticed. She had left quietly in the night, a cloudy moonless night.

Belarus was most likely to notice her missing first. Dependent as Ukraine was on her brother, Belarus was twice as so. Belarus would do near anything to remain on her brother's good side, then again Belarus was only alive because of Russia so she shouldn't be so surprised.

She was used to cold; the light frost didn't bother her. Going in any direction other than east would lead to her freedom. Leaves and twigs crunched beneath her boots. She saw her breath as she walked, the clouds rolling along, sometimes giving her light to travel by. She knew when she left her land. It was a strumming of her heart, a flutter then a stab. She kept going.

She would stop for brief rests, avoid any roads or houses. She took as much supplies as she could get her hands on but knew it would only last her so long. Outside of the curtain her brother had made she found pickings from the land, she slept during the days and traveled at night. The world seemed to get colder and colder as she went along. The thing about being a country is she could only tell who and where people where in her own land, she couldn't tell whose lands she ran across.

She slept bundled in her cloak and fallen sticks or hay if she found a barn she could hid in. She was without word on how life was back home. She felt horrible though. Physically and emotionally. To be away from her people and family but knowing she couldn't have stayed locked up like that anymore.

So she kept walking, past the point where her toes where cold and numb. Only the total death of her people would kill her so she disregarded her anxiety over the fate of her limbs.

The sun rose slowly, the air foggy and cold it was time to rest. Finding the beginnings of a forest she created padding of pine needles. She curled up, laid her head on her pack and found herself dreaming before a minute had passed.

[POV Switch]

Covered in a thin layer of frost, curled on the forest floor she looked dead at first glance.

A whimper made him realize she was indeed alive. She was wearing traveling clothing, but was alone.

He had been seeing more of these strangers come near his home, some didn't make it, so he felt a small relief knowing she was still alive.

Gently nudging her shoulder he woke her.

[POV Switch]

She had been dreaming of a long past time,when her brother and sister where still little, a distant foggy memory of a scarf... when she was nudged. A reluctant quick set of jabs on her shoulder

Slowly opening her eyes, she felt the small crunch of frost and she moved her eye lids. The fog had dissipated a little, and there wasn't a trace of red or pinks left in the sky. Above her stood a tall blonde man, he appeared to be glaring but something in his face made her quench her first instinct to run away. He didn't say anything even though she started to move to sit up.

She got to her feet and brushed absentmindedly at the ice on her cloths and face. She was more concerned about what the man wanted. He was bundled warmly up for the weather, stood straight and didn't seem to blink much, but he hadn't attacked her yet... She cracked a small smile. She attempted to greet him in her language, unsure of what else to do...

[POV Switch]

The ice didn't bother her much; she seemed to barely pay attention to it when she stood up. She didn't seem too afraid of him, which is rarity. For whatever reason most people seem to find him frightening even when he hasn't said anything yet. In a war that is useful but in peace time it is detrimental to relationships…and introductions.

She had a tiny smile on, it almost reached her eyes, but they were tired and lonely and she spoke to him in the language of those that had been passing through lately. He knew of a small community of them, the one he was on his way to visit in fact. But, he couldn't speak the language yet

Unsure of what else to do he grabbed her forearm and began to tug on it, urging her to move. She seemed to freeze up. She started to cry, trying to run, pulling away from him.

[POV Switch]

He wanted to send her back! She knew it! She had been so stupid to speak, it pasted her foreignness all over her. He was strong, holding true onto her arm, but she could tell that he was holding back. She worried if she fought too much he would strike her…

But she couldn't go back, not to that place, where everything was slowly suffocating to death! She wasn't weak; she was a farm woman, a former Cossack for goodness sakes! (but those had been healthier days, hadn't they? When her people were healthy...)

…It was obvious this was one fight she couldn't win, and for fear of being hit or something worse she quickly decided she would go along...

For now. If she couldn't win in bran she would wait for the right moment, the forest was large; she had a fair chance of navigating the forest. She was just as good in forests as she was on the farm. She made it to where ever she was with her wits and knowledge and she could get away from this giant man with the same skills that have served her well so far.

She focused on each step, and how the land moved and changed, noticing patterns and rhythms to growth. Birds could be heard, but ones she was unfamiliar with. She noted the sun, as the fog and mist continued to dissipate, marking east and west in her mind.

She maintained her frustration the best she could, but grew in preparedness for a chance to escape. She watched as the sun made it's slow crawl higher and higher in the sky. They reached a slightly worn path in the frost and grass, they marched on this path and she could tell they where approaching a small village.

This could go either way for her, possible allies or all enemies? She wasn't even sure which country she was in exactly, she had set out to get as far away from...everything she knew and ended up here. If things went bad, she wondered in some corner of her mind, would her brother come get her?

[POV Switch]

He stopped pulling her when they reached the tiny village. She had stopped fighting after a point but she was still incredibly tense. Glancing back during their walk he saw her take in the forest, trying to memorize it. If she made it this far then she had to have had some survival abilities, some sensibilities in the woods but he thought it doubtful she would last long in his forests. Many a warrior had died there, looking for a way out...

Looking around the small budding settlement, he waved over the nearest person, a man that luckily had passable understanding of Swedish. The people in this village had taken to dressing ever so slightly more like his people, yet still spoke and followed many Ukrainian traditions. He quickly explained the situation to the man.

[POV Switch]

She eyed the new comer closely; the two men were talking in a language she had foggy recollection of. It seems like the tall one was talking about her, occasionally glancing at her or tugging on her arm slightly. The dark hair man approached slowly.

"It's okay you are safe here." She never thought Ukrainian would ever sound so beautiful as it did then.

It was a small little village, used mostly as a stopping point for fleeing Ukrainians on their way to other places. Boats would come every so often, just as sometimes one of her people would find the village or the tall man would bring them back.

Some people had set up lives here, and had good relations with their neighbors...

Whom she found out were Swedish. Finally after those days (or had it been weeks?) of travel and she found a safe haven. The man she ran into was the representation of Sweden, like she was of Ukraine.

She found the days going by with her displaced people going happily and that whenever he visited her people where always quick to chat with him. He was hard to read, but she was able to pick up on small changes, he seemed happy to have them here. And that warmed her heart. It had seemed like such along time since she felt her people happy, even this small bunch of them.

The boats brought supplies and took people away. They left with hope, a feeling she hadn't known she'd forgotten.

She didn't know for how long she could stay here, she heard things where getting worse back home, but even if she hadn't heard she would have known from the weight dripping away from her frame.

She suffered as her people suffered, regardless of where she was. But she was freer then most of her people, and watching the boat leave and overwhelming sense of peace would flush over her.

In a few days a boat was coming, it was taking some of her people away to a far off place called 'Canada'. She looked around the town she had found so friendly and welcoming and...she didn't want to leave but she remembers that feeling of peace, of hope, that she gets when some of her people get on that boat and decided it was time she left. As long as she was here, she could be found.

The ones that stay and had built lives here, they knew that risk as well, but to them it was worth it, this is where they wanted their journey to end. Her's was just beginning it seemed.

In the days before the boat was to arrive Sweden found two girls in the woods. She was the first to meet them, wrapping them up in her arms they chattered half words at each other. Then the girls pulled Sweden into the hug, saying 'thank you' over and over again.

By now he had been able to pick up on a few words of Ukrainian and she thought it was cute the way he blushed.

When the day came that she was going to leave to was running around the houses saying good bye to each person she could find. The place had started to create a small 'hum-mm' in her heart, like a warming of home. She would be leaving her people again and this time crossing the ocean.

She patted her pack again as she waited for the ramp to clear, so she could get aboard. Behind her she heard people saying good byes. A small group of her people had surrounded Sweden and where thanking him or crying. Some in Swedish some in Ukrainian.

The ramp cleared and her people slowly began to board, she wanted to rush on board and at the same time she wanted to stay put. Someone bumped her shoulder and she watched as the small girl giggled out a apology and ran ahead.

_"Safe trip"_

It was deeply accented but it was in her language she turned slightly to find Sweden there looking down at her. She cracked a small smile.

[POV Switch]

In his own way he had gotten used to having her around, greeting him whenever he visited the settlement, she seemed at peace whenever he was around, rather then frightened like he was used to. Even her people seemed...happy to have him there.

So he would send her off, unsure of what the future would hold for his unlikely..friend? Maybe...

She smiled at him, this one...this one reached her eyes. And in equally deeply accented voice she said

_"Thank you, friend."_

* * *

><p>Super cute friendship time anyone? Ukraine and Sweden both need more friends and since there is some historical background to it, why not be friends with each other! OTF [one true friendship]? I didn't want to use google translator for Ukrianian or Swedish so use a little bit of your imaginations...the point of view switching was less annoying when it was just with astericks. And I probably got stuff mixed up historically, but if you search on wiki "Sweden-Ukraine relations" you can learn more about their relationship, they make the cutest friends. i'm going to run and hide in my corner now.<p> 


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